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Easy Crockpot Chili… Perfect for this weekend!

Looking for an easy crock pot recipe this weekend?   I have just the one… Crockpot Chili.  Perfect for Super Bowl parties and cold weekends spent indoors.  I know I’ve shared this before, but it really is so easy and delicious that I couldn’t resist sharing it again.

Crock-Pot Chili
Into a crock pot, place:
1-2 lbs. ground beef, cooked with chopped onions and drained

4 cans of stewed tomatoes

2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 can of Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes with green chilies)

2 -3 pkg. Chili seasoning (depending upon how spicy you like it)

Cook on low for at least 4-6 hours, or all night, or all day… whatever works for you (see why it’s easy???).

Serve with grated cheese and sour cream on top. Sometimes, we also top it with Fritos and chopped green onions.

[Growing up, Mom always served chili with saltine crackers topped with a mixture of peanut butter and white Karo syrup. Might sound strange, but it’s really good!]

And IF you have any leftovers, here are a few ideas:

Chili dogs, of course, loaded with cheese, mustard, onions, relish…
or

Chili topped baked potatoes, loaded with cheese, sour cream, onions…

or

Chili Pie (what we did this week with our  leftovers.)  Place leftover chili in a baking dish.  Cover with cheese.  Mix one or two boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix and smooth on top.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, covering with foil after 20 minutes.  It was a big hit with the family.  Serve with a dolop of sour cream, and a side salad.  šŸ™‚

Hope you enjoy!

Have a great weekend~
Jennifer

Nov. 26, 2010 – This recipe is linked to Kim’s “Quit Eating Out” Saturday Swap.  šŸ™‚

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If you need to put your trials into perspective…

Just click on this link to the Voice of the Martyrs website and read and pray through the scrolling screen of information. 
Or, click on this site or this site or this site and pray for those in Haiti and for the relief workers/missionaries tirelessly serving there.

Sweet friends, we must remember that things that overwhelm us do NOT overwhelm our Lord.  Sometimes we need to take our eyes off of our own set of overwhelming circumstances and ask the Lord how He would like to use us in someone else’s overwhelming crises. 

It’s not easy to do this.  But if we do, we’ll be in a win-win situation…  Because when we are praying for or serving someone else in the name of Jesus, they are blessed, and we become doubly blessed.  Blessed once because we are being used of God in someone’s life.  And blessed again because for the duration of our prayer time or service, we get a break from focusing on our own struggles.


“Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.

For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],

Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.” 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Amplified)

I love you and bless you in the Powerful Name of Jesus… Who loves you and is the All Mighty Conqueror of EVERYTHING!!!!!
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How to Organize your Facebook Page

*EDITED  – JUST ABOUT A WEEK AFTER THIS POST WAS WRITTEN, FACEBOOK CHANGED EVERYTHING!   OH, WELL…  šŸ˜‰

Hi friends~  It’s day 5 of our “snowed in, school’s out” vacation.  We live on the top of two hills and the bottom of two others, and our road is still completly white with ice and snow.  We spent the last two days “semi-unplugged”, doing our best to stay away from the computers, TVs, and electronic games unless we could hop on and hop off, or it was something we all could do together.  It has been a refreshing change for us, and I think that at this point, everyone’s love tank is full.   It’s a good feeling.

I have a question for you, and hopefully a little info that you might find helpful.

Do you Facebook?

If you do, and you have more than 50 friends on Facebook, does it bother you that itā€™s hard to keep up with all of the status updates? I may be weird, but it bothers me. My thought is that if we are really trying to stay connected with people (and not just collecting ā€œfriendsā€), we would actually want to be able to read and respond to what is going on in the lives of our FB friends.

I realize that, in the scope of life, this is not a big deal. But it bothered me until I discovered an answer to my FB dilemma. And since we bloggers canā€™t keep a good thing to ourselves, I feel an insatiable desire to share it with you.  šŸ™‚

My feelings toward FaceBook fluctuate from season to season. When my life was busy and overwhelming, FB was just one more thing I needed to keep current. Even though I loved knowing what my friends were fixing for dinner, it was information overload.

But now that Iā€™m in a ā€œslower paceā€ of life, Iā€™m enjoying and appreciating the connections FB affords. Especially in thinking that we will soon be moving (still waiting with the Lord on thatā€¦ no word or phone call yet), in faith, Iā€™m organizing my FB page, preparing to stay caught up with my Nashville friends via FB.

When I entered the FB world, my original plan was to limit my number of friends to 50, thinking that I could reasonably keep up with the status updates of about fifty people. But because I love people, I just couldnā€™t turn down a friend request. Soon my 50 became 100, then 200, then 300, etc.

I always wondered how people like my “good friends” (ha ha) Travis Cottrell and Mary Beth Chapman kept up with the status updates of their personal friends when those updates could so easily get lost amidst the thousands of ā€œfan/friendsā€ (like me) they had. Then one day, Travis said something about putting people in his ā€œfriendsā€ and ā€œold friendsā€ categories. It made me think and start looking around FB to find the solution.

Here is what I found, and how it has helped me.

This is a [rather fuzzy] picture of my FB home (not profile) page.

On the left, there are categories provided by FB: Friends, Status Updates, News Feeds, Pages, Photos, Links, etc. At the bottom of this list is the little blue word, ā€œMoreā€. If you click on ā€œMoreā€, an extended list will appear. At the bottom of that list, in blue lettering, are the words, ā€œCreate New Listā€.

If you click on ā€œCreate New Listā€, a box appears. You can type a category name in the ā€œEnter a Nameā€ box, then start selecting your friends to put in that category. *I’ll tell you an easier way to place people in a minute.

I decided to organize my friends by how I originally knew themā€¦ From the places Iā€™ve lived in, to the schools Iā€™ve attended, to my family, and my current church. I even have a ā€œblog/online friendsā€ category.

Once youā€™ve created your lists and added some friends, you can decide which list you want to be your main group that pops up when you go to your FB homepage. To set your main group for your homepage, go to your homepage and click on the blue ā€œMoreā€. Then click and drag the category you want to always see first to the top of the entire list.

Then you can drag and arrange the other categories in the order you want to see them. When you have the categories where you want them, it will automatically save them for you.

I have a fluid category simply called ā€œFriendsā€ set to pop up when I go to my home page. This is where I keep around 50 people that are currently in my life or those I am praying for and donā€™t want to miss a single update. I move people in and out of this list as needed, and try to keep it small.

My next category is ā€œStatus Updatesā€. When I click on this box, everyoneā€™s status updates, no matter which group they fall in, pops up on my screen. The benefit of using Status Updates is that you see people from every category.  The challenge is that unless you are on FB all of the time (which I am not), the updates pile on top of each other and many are missed.

After the ā€œStatus Updates,ā€ my other groups are listed.

When I get a chance to check FB, I can quickly see those in my fluid ā€œFriendsā€ category because they pop up on my home page. Next, I click ā€œStatus Updatesā€ to see whatā€™s currently up with everyone else. Then, I start clicking down the line of categories. Because I have a small number of people in each category, it is easy to see what people have posted. In about 10 minutes, I can stay caught up on over 300 people that I truly care about.

*Once you have your categories set up, you can very easily move people in and out of those categories, or put people into more than one category. Go to your Profile Page and look under your ā€œfriends listā€ on the left of your page. Click on the blue number of friends that you have. All of your friends and groups will be pulled up in ABC order.

Notice how each of my friends are in a specific list? Some are in one, and some are in two. To add or change people from list to list, just click on the word ā€œlistā€ beside the person, then you can put them in the category that best fits.

Make sense? I sure do hope soā€¦  If not, please chalk it up to a mushy brain from being snowed in for 5 days. šŸ™‚

How about youā€¦ do you have your FB organized? Do you have a different method to share with us? How do you feel about FB?

And btw, ā€¦ if you want to be friends, Iā€™d be glad to be your friendā€¦ I now have just the place to keep up with you! šŸ™‚

Love to each of you~
Jennifer

PS: Happy Groundhog Day! šŸ™‚

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Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the SNOW is so delightful!!! 

I guess you sisters up north are probably ready to see Spring… but around middle Tennessee, when we get a real snow, it’s cause for celebration!  We haven’t had a big snow like this since January 2003, and it was a doozy.  Thankfully, this time we had a few days’ warning.  School was cancelled, grocery stores were packed, and we all prepared for a few days of R&R at home with the family. 

It’s been wonderful!  We’ve played games, watched movies, stayed in our jammies, and played in the snow.  Like most families, we’ve got our pile of wet coats, pants, boots, gloves, and scarves drying by our back door.  Today Facebook was full of local snow pictures.  And since Smelling Coffee is my virtual scrapbook, here are a few of ours.

Meet Poppy the Penguin – who was supposed to be a snowman.  Abigail and I tried.  We really did.  But the snow was too powdery to stick together, so we piled up what we could, then sprayed it with water.  Kind of worked… kind of didn’t.  So just like in real life, to disguise the lumps and bumps, we added colorful accessories.   
We couldn’t get over how beautifully the snow covered the ground.  Usually when we get snow, the blades of grass and twigs stick up through it, and it’s not too pretty.  This snow was thick and pristine.
Here is a picture of my “angel” making a snow angel.
This was from the first hour of snowfall Friday morning.  I thought the holly bush covered in snow looked so “Christmas-y”, that I couldn’t resist taking a picture through the window.
We’ve collected snow for snow-cream, and plan to make the most of this gift before it melts.

I never see a full covering of snow that I don’t think about what Jesus does to our sins when He washes them as white as snow.  No twigs or grass blades remaining… He covers them all, and we, like the snow in our front yard, are blindingly white and pure. 

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”  Isaiah 1:18

Thanking Jesus for his covering, and praying His blessings on each of you this Lord’s day, and hoping to play in the snow one more time before it melts…

Jennifer 

*Edited to add photos from today~  We were much more successful today at making snowmen!!!

Before we knew we could actually build a real one, we took the top layer of snow and built a “block snowman”.  It worked well enough…

until we realized that today’s snow would actually roll into a ball. 
Never in my life have I been able to make a real snowman like we’ve seen on TV.  I was giddy! 
That worked so well that Abigial wanted to make one in our front yard.  We dolled her up and stuck a sign in her… a shamless plea for someone to buy our house. šŸ™‚
I wonder if it will work.
Nathan and James played football.

We came in, drank hot chocolate, and are about to finish a game of Monopoly we started earlier.  M&M pancakes for breakfast, snowman building, snowball throwing, fort building, and lots of family time… thank you, Lord, for these days and for this family you have given us. 
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What are you waiting on?

One of my favorite Scriptures is Isaiah 40:31. I remember first time I realized what a treasure it was. I was a freshman in college, and have been in love with it ever since. It became a life “theme” verse for me, and continues to retain it’s title as one of “The All-time Favorites.”

In fact, I’m looking at it right now, beautifully posted at my desk where I can soak in God’s Truth.
Do you love this verse too?
“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV)
“But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.” (The Message)

And check this version out:
“But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.” (Amplified)
(Emphasis mine)
Recently I read something profound about this verse. It went something like this: When we wait on people or events or circumstances, it wears us out. OR When we put our hope in people or events or circumstances, we become weary. But when we wait on the Lord… our strength is renewed. Renewed – Not zapped.
That’s profound to me! All of these months, I’ve been waiting on the Lord WHILE I’ve also waited on a committee to call my husband for a job interview. Knowing that my husband’s resume is in the hands of several committees and waiting on them to call has been exhausting…Until I realized where the power of this verse lies.
People, plans, events, committees, and circumstances are always subject to change. And putting our hope in something that changes is definitely stress-producing… because we never know what to expect.
But putting our hope in the Lord is energizing… because He never changes. “I the Lord do not change. That is why you… are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6)
Now every time I start to “hope” that someone will call today, or “hope” that the right job will come along soon, I put the breaks on that train of thought. Out loud, I’ll say something like, “No, Lord… I’m not hoping in that phone call, circumstance, person, etc., I’m hoping in YOU!”   And immediately, my strength is renewed.
It’s an amazing and immediate transformation. I dare you to try it!
What are you waiting/hoping for? If you are waiting on or hoping for something or someone, I challenge you to try switching the focus of your hope from that person or thing onto the Lord.
If you’re like me, you’ll find an incredible strength and a surge of the Lord’s peace that you have been missing. You’ll actually be energized in your wait.
I can guarantee it… Because His Word promises us that this is true. Try it, and let me know how it worked for you!
Waiting and hoping in the Lord (instead of in anything else) with you~
Jennifer
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